BEIJING, Dec 3, Reuters - As U.S. President Joe Biden prepares to host more than 100 participants in the initial Summit for Democracy China, Chinese state media and diplomats in recent weeks have ramped up criticism of democracy in the United States, pointing out the advantages of its own whole-process democracy with Chinese characteristics on measures ranging from COVID 19 management to social mobility.
Communist Party-ruled China, widely considered to have become more authoritarian under President Xi Jinping, first used the phrase whole-process democracy in 2019, and the concept was enshrined in law this past March.
China was not asked to take part in the Dec. 9 -- 10 event hosted by Biden, but Beijing-claimed Taiwan was.
Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng described the Washington event as the very opposite of democracy because, he said, it is divisive and points fingers at other countries.
China's whole-process people's democracy is not the kind that wakes up at the time of voting and goes back to dormant afterwards, Le told foreign media at an event in Beijing on Thursday.
China is going to release a white paper on democracy on Saturday, with voting permitted at the local level and public feedback collected before any law is implemented.
There isn't a definition of an independent judiciary, free media, or universal suffrage for national office.
At the same time, Zhang Weiwei, the director of the China Institute at Fudan University, said that it is too naive to compare democracy with elections, which can be manipulated by interest groups, money, or disinformation on social media.
China's boosterism for its political model is intended to strengthen political legitimacy domestically while expanding its appeal to developing countries, several foreign analysts said, just as it prepares to stage the Winter Olympics in February amid Western criticism over its human rights record.
Charles Parton, a former British diplomat and senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said Xi has long used the claim that the party's governance is superior to that of the West in order to legitimise the party's monopoly of power.
Asked why Beijing seems obsessed with comparing itself to Washington, Eric Li, a Chinese venture capitalist who founded a current affairs website known for its nationalistic stance, joked: We are just unhappy that we didn't get invited to the party next week.